Woodards Privacy Policy

At Woodards (referred to as "the Group," "we," "us," or "our"), including all its independently owned and operated offices ("Office"), we are deeply committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information. This Privacy Policy outlines in detail how the Group and its Offices collect, use, disclose, and manage your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act), including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and our proactive commitment to best practices under the recent and upcoming privacy law reforms in Australia.

By providing us with your personal information, you acknowledge and consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of that information as described in this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to read this policy carefully.

1. What personal information do we collect?

We collect various types of personal information that are reasonably necessary for our functions and activities, depending on your interactions with the Group or a specific Office and the real estate services we provide. This may include, but is not limited to:

  • Contact Information: Your full name, residential and postal address, email address, and phone numbers.
  • Identification Information: Date of birth, driver's license number, passport details, or other government-issued identifiers (where legally required for verification, security, or compliance purposes, such as anti-money laundering (AML) legislation).
  • Financial Information: Bank account details, credit card information (for transactions), income details, employment details, financial history, and credit worthiness assessments (for rental applications or other credit-related services).
  • Property Information: Details about properties you are interested in, have inquired about, or are selling/leasing. This includes property preferences, purchase history, rental history (e.g., past addresses, rental provider references), property ownership details, property condition reports, and specific requirements for a property search.
  • Communication Records: Comprehensive records of your communications with us, including emails, phone calls, text messages (SMS), instant messages, and meeting notes, to ensure accurate service delivery and for record-keeping.
  • Website Usage Data: Information about how you interact with our websites and digital platforms. This is collected via cookies, analytics tools, and similar technologies, and may include your IP address, browser type, device information, pages viewed, and referring URLs.
  • Other Information: Any other personal information you voluntarily provide to us in the course of seeking or receiving our services, or in response to our requests for information. This may include feedback, survey responses, or details provided during a complaint.
2. How do we collect personal information?

We collect personal information through various transparent and fair methods, primarily directly from you:

  • Directly from You: This is our primary method of collection. It occurs when you:

- Inquire about a property (online, via phone, email, or in person).
- Attend an open home, private inspection, or auction.
- Make an offer to buy or lease a property.
- Submit a rental application.
- List a property for sale or lease.
- Sign up for our newsletter, property alerts, or other subscription services.
- Participate in surveys, competitions, or promotional activities.
- Communicate with the Group or an Office via phone, email, online forms, live chat, or in person.
- Provide documents required for identification or verification.

  • From Third Parties: We may collect information from third parties where permitted by law or with your consent. This can include:

- Real estate portals (e.g. realestate.com.au, domain.com.au) where you have made an inquiry.
- Credit reporting agencies or rental databases (for rental applications or credit assessments).
- Financial institutions, conveyancers, and solicitors involved in your property transaction.
- Government bodies or public registers (e.g., land titles offices, electoral roll).
- Service providers who assist us with our operations.
- Other real estate professionals (e.g., co-agents, referrers).
- Previous rental providers or employers (with your consent, for rental applications).

  • Publicly Available Sources: Such as public registers, social media platforms (where you have made your information publicly available), or other online sources.
  • Through Our Website and Digital Platforms: Via cookies, analytics tools (e.g., Google Analytics), and other tracking technologies when you visit or interact with our online presence. This data helps us understand user behaviour and improve our website experience.
3. Why do we collect, use, and disclose personal information?

We collect, use, and disclose your personal information for purposes directly related to our real estate services and operations, and where it is reasonably necessary for us to carry out our functions and activities. These purposes include:

  • Providing Real Estate Services: To assist you with buying, selling, leasing, or managing properties, including:

- Marketing properties for sale or lease.
- Conducting property appraisals and valuations.
- Facilitating property inspections, open homes, and auctions.
- Processing rental applications and managing tenancies.
- Providing property management services.

  • Facilitating Transactions: Processing applications, preparing contracts of sale or lease agreements, managing settlements, and coordinating with other parties involved in the transaction (e.g., buyers, sellers, renters, rental providers, conveyancers, financial institutions).
  • Communication: Responding to your inquiries, providing property updates, sending relevant information about properties or services, and managing our ongoing relationship with you. This includes sending notifications about changes to auction times or property status.
  • Marketing & Research:

- Sending you information about properties, services, market updates, or promotional materials that may be of interest to you.
- Conducting surveys, requesting reviews or offering opportunities to participate in customer research.
- Tailoring marketing communications to your specific interests or preferences.

You will always have a simple means to opt-out of direct marketing communications.

  • Compliance with Legal and Regulatory Obligations: Meeting our obligations under Australian laws, including the Privacy Act, anti-money laundering (AML) legislation, consumer protection laws, real estate industry regulations, and other specific legal requirements applicable to our services. This may include reporting to government authorities where required.
  • Internal Operations and Improvement: For administrative, accounting, billing, record-keeping, and statistical purposes. To analyse and improve the quality of our services, systems, and business processes. This includes sharing information within the Group for operational efficiency, training, quality assurance, risk management, and internal reporting.
  • Security and Risk Management: Protecting our business, our clients, our employees, and our systems from fraud, cyber threats, unlawful activities, property damage, and managing potential risks. This may involve disclosing information to appropriate authorities if an accident occurs, or a crime is committed or suspected, at a property you have inspected or enquired about.
4. Who do we disclose personal information to?

We may disclose your personal information to third parties in connection with the purposes described above, or as otherwise permitted or required by Australian law. These third parties may include:

  • Other Entities within the Woodards Group: Personal information may be shared between the Group entity and its Offices, or among Offices, for purposes such as lead management, shared databases, marketing and research initiatives, operational support, or where you have interacted with multiple offices.
  • Other Parties in a Transaction: Including vendors, rental providers, prospective buyers, prospective renters, current renters, and their representatives, to facilitate property transactions and rental arrangements.
  • Other Professionals and Service Providers: Such as conveyancers, solicitors, mortgage brokers, valuers, building and pest inspectors, other real estate agents (e.g., co-agents for a property listing), tradespeople (for property maintenance), and professional advisors (e.g., auditors, consultants).
  • External Service Providers: Third-party service providers who assist us with our operations, including IT support, cloud storage providers, marketing agencies, data analytics providers, payment processors, debt collection agencies, and identity verification services.
  • Government and Regulatory Bodies: Including the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), Australian Taxation Office (ATO), financial intelligence agencies (e.g., AUSTRAC), police, courts, tribunals, and other government authorities, where required by law or for compliance purposes.
  • Financial Institutions: In connection with loan applications, property settlements, or financial advice.
  • Credit Reporting Agencies and Rental Databases: For rental applications, credit assessments, or in circumstances where a renter has breached a rental agreement.
  • Strata/Body Corporate Managers: For properties under strata title management.
  • Referral Partners: With your explicit consent, we may refer you to third-party service providers (e.g., removalists, utility connection services, insurance providers) to offer you additional services.
  • Potential Purchasers of Our Business: In the event of a sale or merger of all or part of our business, your personal information may be transferred as part of the assets.

We take reasonable steps to ensure that third parties to whom we disclose personal information are also committed to privacy protection or are subject to similar privacy obligations. Where possible, we enter into agreements with third parties to ensure they handle your data securely and in accordance with applicable privacy laws.

5. Your Rights: Accessing, correcting, and deleting your personal information.

You have important rights regarding your personal information under the Privacy Act and as part of ongoing privacy reforms:

  • Right to Access: You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you. We will provide you with access within a reasonable timeframe (usually 30 days), unless an exception under the Privacy Act applies.
  • Right to Correction: You have the right to request that we update or correct any inaccuracies, incompleteness, or outdated information we hold about you. We will take reasonable steps to correct your information to ensure it is accurate, up-to-date, complete, relevant, and not misleading.
  • Right to Erasure (Right to be Forgotten): You may request that we delete your personal information in certain circumstances, such as when the information is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or if you withdraw your consent and there is no other legal basis for processing. We will assess such requests in accordance with our legal obligations and any overriding public interest.
  • Right to Opt-Out of Direct Marketing: You can easily opt-out of receiving direct marketing communications from us at any time. This can typically be done by clicking the "unsubscribe" link in our emails, replying STOP to SMS messages, or by contacting us directly (see Section 10).

To request access, correction, or deletion of your personal information, or to opt-out of direct marketing, please contact us using the details in Section 10. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe (usually 30 days). We may require you to verify your identity before processing your request.

6. What are the main consequences if you do not provide your personal information?

If you choose not to provide us with your personal information, or if you withdraw your consent for us to use it, the main consequences for you are: You may not be permitted to attend an open for inspection or inspect a property; We will not be able to contact you about the sale or letting of a property, or other properties or information that may be relevant to your interests; Our ability to provide you with comprehensive services related to property enquiries, offers, open homes and auctions may be limited.

7.  Overseas disclosure of personal information.

We may disclose your personal information to external service providers located overseas to assist us in the operation of our business and to provide our services to you. This includes business support services such as the facilitation of correspondence, IT support, and data storage.

While we strive to primarily use Australian-based service providers, some of our third-party service providers may store data or have operations in overseas locations. When disclosing personal information to an overseas recipient, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that:

  • The overseas recipient handles the information in a manner consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.
  • We have a reasonable belief that the overseas recipient is subject to laws or schemes that protect the information in a way that is substantially similar to the APPs, or we have entered into contractual arrangements that require them to protect the information.
  • We have your informed consent to the disclosure.

Currently, our primary overseas disclosure is limited to data storage and processing services in regions that have robust data protection laws. We are continually reviewing our third-party arrangements to ensure compliance with current and anticipated privacy reforms.

8. Security of your personal information.

We are committed to protecting the personal information we hold from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. We implement robust technical and organisational measures to safeguard your data, including:

  • Secure Systems: Storing personal information in secure computer systems and databases with appropriate access controls.
  • Technological Security Measures: Implementing firewalls, encryption (for data in transit and at rest), intrusion detection and prevention systems, regular vulnerability assessments, and multi-factor authentication.
  • Access Controls: Restricting access to personal information to authorised personnel only, based on a "need-to-know" principle, with individual user accounts and strong password policies.
  • Physical Security: Maintaining physical security measures at our premises to protect hard copy records and IT infrastructure.
  • Regular Audits and Updates: Regularly reviewing and updating our security practices, including conducting security audits, penetration testing, and incident response planning.
  • Staff Training: Providing ongoing privacy and data security training to our staff to ensure they understand their obligations in handling personal information.
  • Data Retention: We retain personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law. Once no longer needed, personal information is securely destroyed or de-identified.

While we strive to protect your personal information, no data transmission over the internet or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. We cannot guarantee the absolute security of information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.

Notifiable data breaches scheme

In the event of an eligible data breach that is likely to result in serious harm to you, we are required under the Privacy Act to notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) as soon as practicable, detailing the nature of the breach, the personal information involved, and steps we are taking in response.

9. Automated decision-making.

We may use automated decision-making processes in some of our operations (e.g., for initial property matching based on your stated preferences, or lead generation/scoring based on your engagement with our services).

Where automated decision-making processes could reasonably be expected to significantly affect your rights or interests (e.g., in critical eligibility assessments), we will strive to provide transparency about:

  • The types of personal information used in the automated decision-making process.
  • The logic involved in how decisions are made solely by the operation of the automated system.
  • The types of decisions for which a thing, that is substantially and directly related to making the decision, is done by the operation of the automated system.
  • Your right to request human review of such decisions.

Further transparency obligations regarding automated decision-making are anticipated to come into full effect by December 2026 under the ongoing Privacy Act reforms, and we are continually reviewing and updating our practices to ensure full compliance.

10. Making a privacy complaint.

If you believe we have breached your privacy rights or mishandled your personal information, we encourage you to contact us immediately using the details below. We take all complaints seriously and will:

  1. Acknowledge your complaint promptly in writing within 5 business days of receipt.
  2. Investigate your complaint thoroughly and impartially, gathering all necessary information.
  3. Endeavour to resolve your complaint in a fair and timely manner, aiming to provide a response within 30 days. If we require more time, we will notify you of the delay and the reasons for it.

If you are not satisfied with our response or the way we have handled your complaint, you may have the right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC):

GPO Box 5218

Sydney NSW 2001

Email:  enquiries@oaic.gov.au  | Phone: 1300 363 992 |Website: www.oaic.gov.au

11. Changes to this privacy policy.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, services, or legal requirements (including ongoing amendments to the Privacy Act and other relevant legislation). When we make changes, we will revise the "Effective Date" on the policy.  We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information. The most current version will always be available on our website (www.woodards.com.au/privacy-policy) or upon request.

12. Contact us.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, our privacy practices, or wish to make a request regarding your personal information, please contact us in writing at corporate@woodards.com.au or by  post to:

Woodards Real Estate Group

P O Box 387

Camberwell VIC 3126

For inquiries specific to your dealings with a particular Woodards Office, please contact that office directly using their respective contact details which can be found here.

Effective: June, 2025


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